i think the president won the ele electi election. respect to suzanne collins' comments, she's obviously very influential and her support is important. but one thing she did say is that she wouldn't necessarily supporters blocking susan rice. we do have to give administration officials the space to do their jobs and in this case, ambassador rice was doing her job in talking about the i tacks. >> let me ask you ryan about something that senator collins said, that she did not come out and actually say, i'm going to block susan rice's nomination. she did say that john kerry would be an excellent appointment and would be easily confirmed. tell us why that might not quite be what republicans think it is. >> one issue is that it's senator john kerry becomes secretary of state john kerry and suddenly there's a special election in new jersey and some people were thinking about the opportunity for republicans. >> scott brown. >> scott brown is very popular and that's one angle. conservatives also have policy priorities, and one thing we have n